To the point: self-experiment
Last year I wrote, «After three weeks of vacation, two of which were spent abroad with only sporadic exposure to Swiss media.» I have always made a conscious effort to focus on the media of the country I was visiting while on vacation. Naturally, upon my return, I always had a gap in my knowledge regarding Swiss media and journalism topics.
This year was different. Facebook and Twitter ensured that I was well informed about the Swiss media topics that interested me, even in the south of France. And as a side effect, I was also aware of other Swiss-related topics. All I had to do was follow the links of my Facebook friends or read the tweets of the people I follow on Twitter. I didn't go directly to a single page of a Swiss newspaper for three weeks.
But anyone who now thinks that I, too, would join in the death song of the printed press is mistaken. Just as in earlier years, I read newspapers on paper in the mornings at the Café du Marché with my "Grand crème avec croissant". Once, of course, the Nice-Matin, which reports on all the news between Nice and Marseille, covers every village and every local festivity, but also brings local political issues. An interesting concept: including Corsica, it has seven different regional editions, nota bene full of classified ads. This was then joined by Figaro and Le Monde in turn.
So where is the difference in media consumption? Following the Twitter and Facebook links was pure information consumption about topics that interest me. Short or less short (depending on the link), targeted and important in that they came from people of whom I know the interests and therefore know what kind of information they like to share. A rational and time-saving media consumption.
Reading the printed press is quite different. In Nice-Matin, it was the million-dollar theft of diamonds from the luxury hotel or the forest fire nearby; it was local information. In Le Figaro, it might have been a critical article about the president, a report on the Middle East, or in Le Monde, a review of a new book. That was a different kind of media consumption. Surprising, exciting, emotional. I took the time for that and enjoyed it.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
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